Skip to main content

B.C. senior who posted desperate newspaper ad finds family doctor

Share

An 82-year-old man from Vancouver Island whose pharmacy told him it could no longer refill his medications without an updated prescription has found a new family doctor, after his wife posted a desperate ad in a local newspaper.

Michael Mort’s wife Janet paid nearly $300 for the ad in Saturday’s Victoria Times Colonist, which read “WANTED: BC Licensed Medical Doctor for Prescription Renewal.” It offered to pay “any reasonable fee” to a doctor who could write Michael’s prescriptions.

On Tuesday, a Victoria doctor who saw the ad on social media offered to take Michael on as a patient in her family practice.

“I can’t tell you how relieved I am, because we were on the precipice of a terrible situation,” said Janet Mort. But she said that’s tempered by guilt that so many others haven’t been able to find a GP. “I feel, why me? Why Michael?” she said.

BC Liberal health critic Shirley Bond says the fact the Morts had to place the ad after an unsuccessful year-long search for a new family doctor is a symptom of a primary care system in crisis.

“I think it would be devastating for any family, especially a senior, to be in a position to put in an ad in a newspaper to get a prescription filled in B.C. It’s not something we think would be possible,” said Bond, who blames the provincial government.

Dr. Tahmeena Ali, the president-elect of B.C. Family Doctors, applauds Janet Mort’s creativity in finding her husband a doctor this way, but says it should never have had to happen.

“Obviously not everyone has the means to put in an ad, and there has got to be a better way, that’s not a long term solution to this complex problem,” said Ali.

B.C.’s health minister was not made available for a interview to discuss the newspaper ad and the province’s primary care shortage.

In a statement, the ministry said in part: “We know many people in the province are feeling the effects of the capacity challenges our health-care system is facing, and this individual is no different…..We take the challenge seriously, and are working as efficiently as we can to improve primary care for people in B.C.” 

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

BREAKING

BREAKING Trump chooses anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says he will nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, putting him in charge of a massive agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid.

Measles cases in New Brunswick continues to climb

The number of measles cases in New Brunswick continues to climb. Officials with New Brunswick’s Department of Health said as of Thursday, the number of confirmed cases since October has reached 43.

Stay Connected